JAVS Spring 2013

The opera’s genesis had been fraught with more than its fair share of problems; lack of time forced Rossini to farm out some of the music to his friend Giovanni Pacini, and at the last minute the librettist wanted more money than had been agreed. To make things even worse, the conductor suffered a stroke a few days before the first night. Luckily a replacement was at hand who happened to be a good friend of Rossini’s and also had some experience as a conduc tor from his previous activities at the ducal court of Lucca: Nicolò Paganini.

Misfortunes never come singly, and on the very day of the opera’s premiere, the first horn—for whom Rossini had written an especially challenging solo— was taken ill. Ever game, Paganini undertook this chore as well. Since, however, horn playing wasn’t among his many talents, he performed this passage on the viola. The instrument he used on the occa sion, made by Davide Tecchler in 1742, is kept at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, but I recall seeing it at an exhibition mounted in Pesaro for the bicentennial of Rossini’s birth. unfortunately, the viola version of this solo never made it either into print or into the performance practice of Matilde di Shabran . After Paganini had rescued the premiere and also conducted the two fol lowing performances, the original conductor and horn player showed up again to complete the run. The passage in question consists of an extended instrumental prelude featuring a horn cantilena, after which the solo instrument contributes several interjections during the aria itself (which was vari ously sung by a mezzo-soprano or a bass during the opera’s early history, before settling on the first alter native). The piece is in E-flat major and includes several low B-flats, a whole step below the viola’s C string (ex. 2). I wonder how Paganini solved this: Did he transpose the relevant phrases an octave higher, or modified the melodic shape, or used a scordatura tuning to allow for this note? This we will surely never know, but this aria, as well as the one note number previously mentioned, are well worth the attention of violists wishing to indulge in some Rossinian bel canto in their recitals. And, come to think of it, that B-flat from Ciro in Babilonia should be within the vocal range of most piano accompa nists, too!

Nicolò Paganini

Paganini happened to be in Rome at the time and had indeed spent some of the Carnival nights walking the streets with Rossini, both of them disguised as beggars and singing a mournful ditty of the latter’s authorship in a double act worthy of Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello. An eye-witness recalls that Rossini had filled out his already ample frame with bundles of straw, while Paganini remained “thin as a lath, and, with his face like the head of his fiddle.” 2

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